Would you say that Arsenio Hall's show was a bomb? Yeah, neither would I.But The St. Peterburg Times lumps Hall's show into a group that includes Magic Johnson, Chevy Chase, Pat Sajak, and Alan Thicke. They all hosted late night talk shows that never quite made it. And when I say never quite I made it, I mean they were gone in the blink of an eye. But Hall's show lasted about 6 seasons, and if I remember correctly was quite popular with younger viewers and gave Carson, Leno and Letterman some good competition in that demographic. I also don't agree with another statement, that Jon Stewart's talk show "sucked." I kinda liked it.
So will Jimmy Fallon's show be another short-lived show that couldn't compete? Or is it a different time now? A lot of people thought that another Jimmy, Kimmel, wouldn't last that long either. But it looks like he's here for the long haul.
When I think of Chase's show...wow, I still cringe a little bit. For the record, Sajak really wasn't that bad. I remember they tried to change the show at one point by having him wear sweaters (it's so casual!) and that was lame, but he's a good interviewer and a funny guy. After the jump, one of his CBS shows, with Bo Diddly, Betty White, William Shatner, and Valerie Harper.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
2-18-2009 @ 1:00PM
Fred said...
Hall's show was actually pretty important in pop culture for a brief while. It's arguable that his appearance on the show helped Bill Clinton win the presidency.
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2-18-2009 @ 1:06PM
CJ said...
If I remember correctly, Hall decided to quit as he never intended to do a long term commitment to the project.
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2-19-2009 @ 8:47PM
R.H. Golem said...
Arsenio was cancelled.
He claimed that booking guests like Louis Farrakhan turned off affiliates and advertisers, but I seem to recall the debut of the Chevy Chase show on FOX gobbled up most of his affiliate stations, and cut into his ratings.
2-18-2009 @ 1:17PM
Arclight said...
No, you are remembering it wrong.
Jon Stewart's show really did suck.
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2-18-2009 @ 1:29PM
tracey said...
Jon Stewart's talk show was a bit underwhelming, but there was one moment that always stuck with me: his interview of William Shatner. I had always known that Shatner was Jewish, but Stewart's interview was really the only time that Shatner really came across that way to me. Stewart was doing the secular-Jew-bonding thing and it was quite striking; didn't work so well when he tried the same thing with Joe Lieberman.
As for Arsenio... the show was hugely popular at one time, but as I recall, it crashed and burned towards the end and became a joke, with Arsenio constantly name checking and talking about himself. Perhaps the people who wrote the article were thinking of the later Arsenio days rather than the earlier ones.
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2-18-2009 @ 1:30PM
tracey said...
FYI: the best thing to come out of the Chevy Chase talk show was a Doritos commercial.
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2-18-2009 @ 2:23PM
Cincinnati Mike said...
Arsenio certainly gave Johnny a run for the youth viewer. But the Dave-Jay war really sucked the air from the room. I think part of the reason Jay eventually came out on top is that he first killed Arsenio. Remember, Jay at first had that crazy bitch producer that everyone was afraid of...who would blackball anyone who didn't agree to appear on Jay first before appearing on Dave or Arsenio. Dave could combat that, but weaker, late-run Arsenio couldn't.
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2-19-2009 @ 9:37AM
kip said...
Arsenio Hall's show was awesome. It was on for 5 years. How the heck os that short lived? The band was frenetic and he did a great job for the youth vote. Remember at the time Dave was also appealing to the youth as well. Arsenio was also the only place you could see hip hop acts and new music. BTW, didn't a certain governor from Arkansas place sax on his show as well. Far from irrelevant.
Everyone who he competed against assimilated components into their show. He was on, I believe UPN in the NYC tri state, which never had the coverage to compete with lead ins to begin with.
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2-19-2009 @ 11:36AM
eric f. said...
you aren't helping Jimmy's case. Every time you use that stupid picture of him it makes me like him less.
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